Last weekend my family attended a game of the minor league Lake County Captains. This was our second trip to a minor league baseball game. We usually attend Guardians games, of course! Isn’t it always better in the big leagues?
As we exited Route 2 and approached the park, we found parking right next to the ballpark. There was no waiting in long lines of traffic or circling around to find an available parking space. When we entered the ballpark, we were pleasantly surprised to buy tickets for seats on the first base side of home plate about ten rows back! The smaller, less crowded, more intimate ballpark enabled us to get an up close and personal view of the action. And both parking and tickets were considerably less expensive than for Guardians’ games.
The food was essentially the same price — hot dogs, nachos, fries, pizza, ice cream, snow cones, and souvenir cups. The Cargo Store offered caps, t-shirts, baseballs and bobblehead dolls for sale, just like a Team Shop. A local singer sang the National Anthem.
The game was identical to the game played at Progressive Field – but it was friendlier! There were contests between innings where children could run the bases, racing against the Captain’s mascot and winning prizes. Adults competed at throwing a baseball through a target and hitting a baseball over the home run fence. The regular fans knew the emcee, who directed these on-field contests. People knew each other, and there was a pervasive sense of camaraderie. It wasn’t long before we, too, came to know the players – those who would get the hits as well as those who would strike out.
As I sat and enjoyed the action, I realized that going to a minor league game is a little like choosing a smaller, lesser-known college over a state university or prestigious Ivy League institution. Certainly, the facilities are smaller; there are fewer people; it might even be a bit less glamorous. But are these necessarily bad things? There is also less bureaucracy and less red tape. Where does misperception end and reality begin?
The up close and personal atmosphere at the minor league game is analogous to the atmosphere on a small, college campus. People smile and greet each other as they walk across campus, rather than rushing in a harried fashion. Students are more collaborative and less competitive. They are not closed out of classes, and consequently, they are more likely to finish in four years. Professors take time for their students, discussing issues both inside and outside of the classroom; they help students find internships and apply to graduate schools; they aren’t too busy and pressured trying to publish their own research before their next review. In fact, at small, liberal arts colleges, professors are measured by the quality of their teaching, rather than the volume of their research.
As an educational consultant, I spend over 20% of my time personally visiting colleges in order to better understand the nuances that make one college more appropriate than another for my students. I have observed firsthand the personal atmosphere that is present on small college campuses. The value of “studying” with a Nobel prize-winning professor at a distinguished university evaporates in the reality of a lecture hall with 1000 students where you need binoculars to see the Nobel laureate. The chance of admission to medical school is enhanced when students conduct and publish their own research.
Unfortunately, at many large universities, the graduate students receive the funding to do the research, and undergraduates assist professors with theirs. If you seek an education in which you will be actively engaged, I encourage you to look beyond state universities, beyond even the Ivy League, to the hundreds of academically excellent, small colleges that place the highest value on the education of the undergraduate.
© Copyright July, 2025
Northcoast Educational Consulting
